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The film Gummo is intended to be a symbolic movie in which fantasy and reality intertwine. Initially, the film opens in a small town in Ohio after a tornado has swept through and destroyed it. Economically the small region is wrecked. Like the buildings around them, the social fabric that is holding the town together is coming apart at the seams. Whatever traditions and values this town has held in the past seem to no longer exist as the line between the sacred and the profane has been obscured beyond recognition. While it is difficult to know outright the attitudes and convictions of any social group, based on what the film shows there is little, if any, social solidarity in this environment. The foundation for this statement can be seen in the lack of any authoritative figures in the film. The town is seemingly void of any structure, law, or government, and the actions of its’ residents seem to reflect this. Individualism seems to reign supreme in this community, if it can be called that. Admittedly social bonds such as friends and family still exist, but as a whole individual pursuits and interests still override any pretense of collective purpose. This fact, however, doesn’t truly deviate at all from what is considered normal, true it does take on a much uglier face in Gummo, but individual goals and pursuits are commonplace practically anywhere in the United States and around the globe. On the other hand, it must be realized that in most instances natural disasters do have a history of bringing communities together in times of hardship, something that is not at all seen in the film. In short, the social order, much like the town itself, is in shambles, with little or no social solidarity.

Gummo is meant to be entirely symbolic in one way or another. One of the more notable symbolisms is that of cats and their murder. The function of their deaths is rather straightforward: in a town such as this, there appears to...